The Brooklyn Eagle (June 11, 1944)
North Carolina Governor decries revolt in South
Governor J. Melville Broughton of North Carolina, whose delegation to the Democratic National Convention is instructed to vote for his nomination for Vice President, told a press conference yesterday that, regardless of “upsurges” occurring in the Southern states, the solid South would stand behind the President for a fourth term and that he would be reelected on the war and peace issue.
He also voiced the judgment that issues which have arisen would be “reconciled” at the national convention without being permitted to reach a point where a split might ensue.
Answering a question whether he believed President Roosevelt would run, he said:
I believe that he will be a candidate and will be reelected, notwithstanding various upsurges and the feeling of resentment which is directed against encroachment upon matters which the South feels should be treated purely at the state level.
I think the decisive issue to be the conduct of the war and the conduct of the peace after the war and that all other issues will be obscured in the minds of the people. I say this although I have heard some people say this with a great deal of reluctance and purely as a realistic appraisal.
Governor Broughton held a press conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania before meeting Governor John W. Bicker of Ohio, an active candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, in a radio discussion of national issues last night.
Asked about the so-called political “revolt” in some of the Southern states, Governor Broughton said he was “not competent to comment on what’s behind it.” He said that from information reaching him it had originated from resentment toward what was considered “interference with state prerogatives.”
“They don’t charge it to the President, but to some parts of the administration’s program,” he said.
His state has no poll tax
His own state has not had a poll tax for many years, but, at the same time, would not, the Governor said, attempt to tell another what stand it should take on the question. He said he did not consider the poll tax issue as one to be handled in the party’s platform. Later, he said, in answering questions, he did not believe the CIO Political Action Committee would insist upon an anti-poll tax plank in the Democratic platform to the point where a clash over the issue might jeopardize the President’s chances of reelection. He admitted the South’s fight for restoration of the two-thirds rule at the convention was “a right strong movement.”
He said:
I don’t know how far it will get, although I doubt this question alone would be sufficient to cause a split.
The Governor said in his judgment the border states of Kentucky, West Virginia and Oklahoma will go Democratic and he also suggested Ohio was more likely to be carried by President Roosevelt than for Kentucky to go Republican.
Governor Broughton, declaring North Carolina has enjoyed a huge industrial boom, said that, in his opinion, all the states were in an excellent financial condition to meet post-war problems “without looking to the federal government.”